I'm ready to go to bed; I got to work by 9:30, didn't leave until 8:30, came home and should have done some more work, but instead I sat around and read up on Heath Ledger on imdb.com, then watched some 'Strange Love w/Brigitte and Flav' on VH1. Hahahaha I'm retarded. VH1 is sooooo trashy, but I love it if only because I don't have to think. And since I have to be back at work by 8am, not thinking is great.
Meanwhile, my friend Katie and I always suspected that Koko the gorilla killed her kitten; now, it turns out that she also has strange sexual desires. Why aren't all these concerned Christian groups going after the animal kingdom as well?
I'm ready for the weekend, even though I feel like the weekend just ended; I have no plans tomorrow, but dim sum on Saturday and Claudia's birthday party on Sunday. Hopefully I'll get the chance to clean the apartment...and I'll probably have some work to do...and perhaps I'll go crazy after listening to Counting Crows' 'All My Friends' on repeat one too many times. But in any event, it will be fun!
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Monday, February 21, 2005
can't you see what you've done to my heart and soul?...this is a wasteland now
I've been obsessed with Interpol (the band, not the agency) for several weeks now. My parents got me the CD for Christmas, since I had put it on my list as a whim even though the CD medium is just about dead for me--if it wasn't for the CD player in my car, I would have virtually no need for them anymore (my CDs, not my parents). I don't think that I love Interpol; rather, I am so sick of the rest of my music that I get in the car every day, think 'I should put in something else,' realize that there is nothing else I want to listen to more (or at all), and so continue listening to Interpol. Since my commute has lengthened to 20-30 minutes each way after moving to Menlo Park, I can get through the entire CD on my way to and from work each day. I'm so lucky.
You should also check out SandHillRoadProject.net to see how much worse my commute will get when the construction on Sand Hill near my condo switches into Phase Two. Phase One is already a mess; I sat at the intersection of Sand Hill/Santa Cruz for about twenty minutes one morning a couple of weeks ago, although that has since improved, and will get even better when they finally open all lanes of Sand Hill. However, as soon as both of Sand Hill's lanes open, they switch to Phase Two--which involves shutting down the one-block stretch between Santa Cruz/Sand Hill and Santa Cruz/Alpine/Juniperro Serra. One block doesn't sound so bad, eh? Except that effectively cuts me off from the quickest route to Stanford/the boys' place in Los Altos, and eliminates my second-fastest alternative to the mess around Sand Hill and Santa Cruz. It also takes away the faster option for getting on southbound 101 (Alpine) and quick access to Page Mill.
Essentially, if you skipped that whole paragraph, it means we're pretty much fucked. The improvements to Sand Hill will help, but I'm not psyched about the closure of that one stretch of road (from April to November!!), since that means the only good way to get to campus is to go up Sand Hill to Stock Farm. Not terrible, but not ideal, especially for getting to east campus. Sadness.
Anyway, things are fine--I still haven't finished unpacking, but I made some progress tonight. I may go furniture shopping w/Terry tomorrow, depending on my ambition levels--I'd like to at least look at sofas, as well as a real dresser (significant upgrade from my current system of plastic bins, crates, and wire cubes). I had dinner w/Julie tonight, which was v. fun, and I'm sad that I haven't seen her (or any of that group) as much as I would like.
We had dim sum on Saturday, as usual, and it was Claude's turn to play. She got relatively lucky--she had to take from the cart of sadness, but she got the only non-scary thing on there (roasted pork). The only problem with the dish was that there was a lot of it, Claude doesn't really seem to like big piles of meat, and the top part of each piece looked like it had been caramelized and so it was a little too crunchy to suit our tastes. The waiters so obviously know that we're playing--the woman who served me feet last weekend walked by us with the feet cart, then backed up, looked directly at me, and asked if I wanted any. Then she laughed and walked away. And, the cart of sadness woman seemed almost disappointed that we got pork instead of feet or weird sea creatures. Dim sum was great, though, as usual.
Afterwards, we dropped Claudia off, and Tammy, Shedletsky and I saw a matinee of 'Constantine.' It was not great, but it wasn't bad either; some of the visuals were very appealing to me, and of course I have to give a shout-out to Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, who had a lovely turn as Satan's henchman Balthazar. Keanu Reeves was somewhat terrible, but it was forgiveable. The only thing that truly bothers me is that this is the second time in only a couple of months that I have watched a movie containing the Spear of Destiny as a major plot piece. For the first, you can reread my review of 'The Librarian: Quest for the Spear', starring Noah Wyle and Bob Newhart (http://wampwamp.blogspot.com/2004/12/thumbprints-and-stressing.html). In 'Constantine,' the Spear of Destiny was found early on by the only brown person in the movie (other than Djimon Honsou, who played the owner of the ubiquitous neutral techno club for angels and demons...and the club had one shot that made me laugh, which involved a table of angels turning water into wine)...and the brown person proceeded to wreak havoc in his demon-encouraged attempt to take the Spear to LA for reasons that I cannot reveal without spoiling the movie. Or something. As soon as the Spear of Destiny showed up (less than ten minutes into the movie), I knew that I had picked a winner.
And now, after a rather long interlude of conversation with Claudia, it's time to go to bed!
You should also check out SandHillRoadProject.net to see how much worse my commute will get when the construction on Sand Hill near my condo switches into Phase Two. Phase One is already a mess; I sat at the intersection of Sand Hill/Santa Cruz for about twenty minutes one morning a couple of weeks ago, although that has since improved, and will get even better when they finally open all lanes of Sand Hill. However, as soon as both of Sand Hill's lanes open, they switch to Phase Two--which involves shutting down the one-block stretch between Santa Cruz/Sand Hill and Santa Cruz/Alpine/Juniperro Serra. One block doesn't sound so bad, eh? Except that effectively cuts me off from the quickest route to Stanford/the boys' place in Los Altos, and eliminates my second-fastest alternative to the mess around Sand Hill and Santa Cruz. It also takes away the faster option for getting on southbound 101 (Alpine) and quick access to Page Mill.
Essentially, if you skipped that whole paragraph, it means we're pretty much fucked. The improvements to Sand Hill will help, but I'm not psyched about the closure of that one stretch of road (from April to November!!), since that means the only good way to get to campus is to go up Sand Hill to Stock Farm. Not terrible, but not ideal, especially for getting to east campus. Sadness.
Anyway, things are fine--I still haven't finished unpacking, but I made some progress tonight. I may go furniture shopping w/Terry tomorrow, depending on my ambition levels--I'd like to at least look at sofas, as well as a real dresser (significant upgrade from my current system of plastic bins, crates, and wire cubes). I had dinner w/Julie tonight, which was v. fun, and I'm sad that I haven't seen her (or any of that group) as much as I would like.
We had dim sum on Saturday, as usual, and it was Claude's turn to play. She got relatively lucky--she had to take from the cart of sadness, but she got the only non-scary thing on there (roasted pork). The only problem with the dish was that there was a lot of it, Claude doesn't really seem to like big piles of meat, and the top part of each piece looked like it had been caramelized and so it was a little too crunchy to suit our tastes. The waiters so obviously know that we're playing--the woman who served me feet last weekend walked by us with the feet cart, then backed up, looked directly at me, and asked if I wanted any. Then she laughed and walked away. And, the cart of sadness woman seemed almost disappointed that we got pork instead of feet or weird sea creatures. Dim sum was great, though, as usual.
Afterwards, we dropped Claudia off, and Tammy, Shedletsky and I saw a matinee of 'Constantine.' It was not great, but it wasn't bad either; some of the visuals were very appealing to me, and of course I have to give a shout-out to Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, who had a lovely turn as Satan's henchman Balthazar. Keanu Reeves was somewhat terrible, but it was forgiveable. The only thing that truly bothers me is that this is the second time in only a couple of months that I have watched a movie containing the Spear of Destiny as a major plot piece. For the first, you can reread my review of 'The Librarian: Quest for the Spear', starring Noah Wyle and Bob Newhart (http://wampwamp.blogspot.com/2004/12/thumbprints-and-stressing.html). In 'Constantine,' the Spear of Destiny was found early on by the only brown person in the movie (other than Djimon Honsou, who played the owner of the ubiquitous neutral techno club for angels and demons...and the club had one shot that made me laugh, which involved a table of angels turning water into wine)...and the brown person proceeded to wreak havoc in his demon-encouraged attempt to take the Spear to LA for reasons that I cannot reveal without spoiling the movie. Or something. As soon as the Spear of Destiny showed up (less than ten minutes into the movie), I knew that I had picked a winner.
And now, after a rather long interlude of conversation with Claudia, it's time to go to bed!
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
i will bounce you on the lap of silence
I don't have much time to write, since I have to be at work for a meeting at 8am, but I miss the days when I used to blog frequently and I'd like to get back into the habit. I think I really did break my nose--it never became severely bruised or swollen, but it hasn't stopped hurting since Saturday and when I sneeze or move my face, it feels like something in my nose is moving abnormally. It's made it really difficult to concentrate at work, since it drives me crazy when I'm just sitting there staring at the screen--and it's driving me crazy now as well. Sadness!
But, I came home around eight tonight, sat mindlessly and watched some of the first Austin Powers movie on TV (and why is 'randy' better than 'horny'? ABC replaced the 'do I make you horny, baby?' scene on the revolving bed with 'do I make you randy, baby?'...which didn't seem like much of an improvement). Then I finally coerced myself into putting together the rest of my bookshelves and unpacking the rest of my books. I still have a lot to do to get my room in order, and I have a multitude of boxes that I need to unpack, but this was a good start. However, putting away the books took a lot of time, especially since I decided to organize all of my decent literature in chronological order by country of origin (that's three shelves of literature, which does not include the three shelves of romance novels, or the shelf containing the Anne of Green Gables series/a bunch of Agatha Christie mysteries/the Chronicles of Narnia/the Lord of the Rings series/the Dark is Rising series/several other favorites from childhood, or the several shelves full of philosophy/computer science/linguistics/psychology/sociology/history/totalitarianism/Germany/
the plot to kill Hitler). I need to start reading again--I have a whole bunch of books sitting on my shelves that I've never even opened, I just keep acquiring them and not finding the time to read them.
I also need to write my romance novel, but that's a story for another day. For now, I shall go to bed--and as sad as I am that I don't have obvious war wounds to show for my broken nose, I am happy that I will not be rivaling Owen Wilson for most distinctive face.
But, I came home around eight tonight, sat mindlessly and watched some of the first Austin Powers movie on TV (and why is 'randy' better than 'horny'? ABC replaced the 'do I make you horny, baby?' scene on the revolving bed with 'do I make you randy, baby?'...which didn't seem like much of an improvement). Then I finally coerced myself into putting together the rest of my bookshelves and unpacking the rest of my books. I still have a lot to do to get my room in order, and I have a multitude of boxes that I need to unpack, but this was a good start. However, putting away the books took a lot of time, especially since I decided to organize all of my decent literature in chronological order by country of origin (that's three shelves of literature, which does not include the three shelves of romance novels, or the shelf containing the Anne of Green Gables series/a bunch of Agatha Christie mysteries/the Chronicles of Narnia/the Lord of the Rings series/the Dark is Rising series/several other favorites from childhood, or the several shelves full of philosophy/computer science/linguistics/psychology/sociology/history/totalitarianism/Germany/
the plot to kill Hitler). I need to start reading again--I have a whole bunch of books sitting on my shelves that I've never even opened, I just keep acquiring them and not finding the time to read them.
I also need to write my romance novel, but that's a story for another day. For now, I shall go to bed--and as sad as I am that I don't have obvious war wounds to show for my broken nose, I am happy that I will not be rivaling Owen Wilson for most distinctive face.
Monday, February 14, 2005
too many consequences for my actions!
Wow, what a weekend. I know that actions have consequences, but I hate when they happen to me. Saturday, I had dim sum w/Claudia, Tammy and Shedletsky, and it was my turn to play the game. And what did I get? I got ginger, egg, and pigs' feet in black vinegar, which was big enough to serve four people, and just happened to be the first feet dish of the game. There's some debate over whether or not it was a two-point dish, but I think that the 'feet' points go for chicken feet, so I'm only taking a point. It was pretty freaking gross...they let me get away without eating the huge pieces of ginger root, since that seemed like an abominable idea, and luckily I only had to eat one of the whole boiled eggs in the mixture since the rest of the group tried the other one. But there were several feet, and the only thing you can eat off of it is this rind of pure fat, so that was gross. And the egg was super-dry, and very difficult to swallow. To top it off, the black vinegar sauce was sickly sweet and nasty. The most ironic thing of all is that the waitress who served the feet had the nametag 'Fun', which just seemed so unfair.
We're pretty sure that they know that we're playing now, since we've gotten burned several times recently on stuff that we had absolutely no good reason to eat. In fact, one person came by and offered us something else disgusting, even though our plates had already been cleared away and we were paying the bill. And she laughed at us. Openly. We decided it would be awesome if the staff is now also playing a game with us, and trying to win by being the person who brings us the grossest stuff at just the right time. We didn't see the cart of happiness all day (it bypassed me right before the pigs' feet showed up), so I think they're messing with us.
Anyway, since they know we're playing, we're gonna start taking a camera so that we can document our wins and losses. When that happens, I'll either post to this blog or start a new one for the game.
Here's the most recent score update:
Tammy: 2.5 points after two rounds (bbq pork bun, deep fried shrimp w/mayonnaise, half of the tripe)
Shedletsky: -1 point after two rounds (shrimp/pork dumpling, refused to try tongue, refused to eat tripe)
Sara: 2.5 points after two rounds (pan fried crap noodle, pigs' feet, half of the tripe)
Claudia: 2 points after one round (marinated duck tongues)
I basically had to eat the feet, because I would have lost a point if I didn't, putting me at .5, and I was sure Tammy could eat it and pick up the point and an insurmountable lead. Ugh.
So later, I bought sheets for my bed, which was great. But then, I went out clubbing, which was a bad idea because I didn't want to go and so solved that dilemma by getting so drunk that I didn't care where I was. This resulted in a nasty hangover today (word of advice, do not drink a shot called the 'Three Wisemen'...it's a combination of Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, and Jose Cuervo, and it's enough to destroy your weekend). Also, my good friend Vidya and I had a collision in which her head hit my face, and at the time I thought she'd broken my nose, but it wasn't bleeding and I decided I was overreacting. However, in the haze of post-binging pain that I felt this afternoon, I slowly discerned that the alcohol-head-pain was different from the throbbing-nose-pain...and my nose is swollen and slightly misshapen, and has hurt all day despite frequent icing. Of course, my nose may have always been misshapen, but I don't know and now I'm sad.
But, the evening was good--I was feeling the need for some serious steak, so I had Tammy and Shedletsky over for dinner (steak on the George Foreman grill, and frozen fries cooked in the oven...mmm), and Terry and I had fun watching some of the Grammys w/them. I took Shed back to campus, Claudia came back from a visit home, and Tammy, Terry, Claude and I watched 'Napoleon Dynamite'. It was great...but Tammy's copy has been watched so much that it has turned into a decroded piece of crap, and she talked up the ending wedding sequence that was added after Claude and I saw the movie in the theatre--but then the DVD was ruined in that spot and we couldn't watch it. Sadness!
So my weekend was both awesome and terrible--I can either take away the great dim sum, the new sheets, the fun I had with the cute new top I wore clubbing (although Vidya pulled it down at one point and exposed my left breast, but that's not the top's fault, and I don't think anyone saw), and the steak and Napoleon Dynamite, or I can take away the pigs' feet, the three wisemen, the vomit, the massive hangover, the almost-broken nose, and the missing scenes from the movie. I shall deliberate over this decision in my dreams, I'm sure.
We're pretty sure that they know that we're playing now, since we've gotten burned several times recently on stuff that we had absolutely no good reason to eat. In fact, one person came by and offered us something else disgusting, even though our plates had already been cleared away and we were paying the bill. And she laughed at us. Openly. We decided it would be awesome if the staff is now also playing a game with us, and trying to win by being the person who brings us the grossest stuff at just the right time. We didn't see the cart of happiness all day (it bypassed me right before the pigs' feet showed up), so I think they're messing with us.
Anyway, since they know we're playing, we're gonna start taking a camera so that we can document our wins and losses. When that happens, I'll either post to this blog or start a new one for the game.
Here's the most recent score update:
Tammy: 2.5 points after two rounds (bbq pork bun, deep fried shrimp w/mayonnaise, half of the tripe)
Shedletsky: -1 point after two rounds (shrimp/pork dumpling, refused to try tongue, refused to eat tripe)
Sara: 2.5 points after two rounds (pan fried crap noodle, pigs' feet, half of the tripe)
Claudia: 2 points after one round (marinated duck tongues)
I basically had to eat the feet, because I would have lost a point if I didn't, putting me at .5, and I was sure Tammy could eat it and pick up the point and an insurmountable lead. Ugh.
So later, I bought sheets for my bed, which was great. But then, I went out clubbing, which was a bad idea because I didn't want to go and so solved that dilemma by getting so drunk that I didn't care where I was. This resulted in a nasty hangover today (word of advice, do not drink a shot called the 'Three Wisemen'...it's a combination of Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, and Jose Cuervo, and it's enough to destroy your weekend). Also, my good friend Vidya and I had a collision in which her head hit my face, and at the time I thought she'd broken my nose, but it wasn't bleeding and I decided I was overreacting. However, in the haze of post-binging pain that I felt this afternoon, I slowly discerned that the alcohol-head-pain was different from the throbbing-nose-pain...and my nose is swollen and slightly misshapen, and has hurt all day despite frequent icing. Of course, my nose may have always been misshapen, but I don't know and now I'm sad.
But, the evening was good--I was feeling the need for some serious steak, so I had Tammy and Shedletsky over for dinner (steak on the George Foreman grill, and frozen fries cooked in the oven...mmm), and Terry and I had fun watching some of the Grammys w/them. I took Shed back to campus, Claudia came back from a visit home, and Tammy, Terry, Claude and I watched 'Napoleon Dynamite'. It was great...but Tammy's copy has been watched so much that it has turned into a decroded piece of crap, and she talked up the ending wedding sequence that was added after Claude and I saw the movie in the theatre--but then the DVD was ruined in that spot and we couldn't watch it. Sadness!
So my weekend was both awesome and terrible--I can either take away the great dim sum, the new sheets, the fun I had with the cute new top I wore clubbing (although Vidya pulled it down at one point and exposed my left breast, but that's not the top's fault, and I don't think anyone saw), and the steak and Napoleon Dynamite, or I can take away the pigs' feet, the three wisemen, the vomit, the massive hangover, the almost-broken nose, and the missing scenes from the movie. I shall deliberate over this decision in my dreams, I'm sure.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
i'll subtract pain by ounces
Last weekend was really fun, and I'm so happy that the next weekend is only two days away! Friday I went to Ikea, then had thai food with Claudia. Saturday, we had to wait for Comcast to show up, so we couldn't have dim sum--to make up for it, we invited Tammy, Shedletsky, Joanna and Emma over for brunch. Claude and I made french toast, fried potatoes, and scrambled eggs w/ham and peppers; it was all tasty, if I do say so myself. However, because there was no natural break after leaving the restaurant, for example, we just hung out in my living room all afternoon--'brunch' didn't end until 5pm. So it was very nice, but I didn't get anything done...I just managed to get the dishes washed when Terry and her mom showed up around 5:15. Terry's mom and the mom's friend took us to Celia's for dinner, where I had too many margaritas. Oh, and Lisa was visiting for the weekend, which was great; she lived on my floor junior year, then was on staff w/me senior year, and it was really fun to see her. Unfortunately, most of the time I spent with her involved me drinking, so it's not all entirely clear, but it was still good. Sunday was the Super Bowl, and Terry's friends were here to watch the game...unfortunately for them, my friends were here to eat and drink and be very loudly merry. The combination of Tammy, Vidya, Ritu, Maneesh, John, Jav, and Oniel is fairly loud, especially when we all started doing tequila shots in the back of the living room. Claude and I had fun cooking for it (I made deviled eggs, spinach artichoke dip, and a funfetti cake, while Claudia made a coconut cream pie and some phyllo-dough/spinach/bacon turnovers), and then we started drinking smirnoff ices and tequila, which made the afternoon even more pleasant. The people watching the game may not have been entirely happy, but the rest of us had a blast and a half. Then I watched Dodgeball with Claudia and Tammy while Tammy sobered up to drive home, and that was the end of my weekend!
Work is busy, as usual, and so I'm looking forward to the weekend so that I can get down to business with organizing my room. I have half my bookshelves put together, but until they're all put together I can't put away all my books because I can't organize appropriately--but I can't put together my bookshelves until I move all my books, since I have ten boxes of stuff in the precise location where the bookshelves belong. Sadness. My apartment is fantastic, though, and we have wireless again so I'm quite the happy camper.
So, I'm stressed about work, I haven't had a chance to write my romance novel for months, my room is a disaster, and I have yet to buy a couch or other furniture for the living room, but all in all life is fantastic. Yay for that. And now, yay for bed--I had a conference call at eight this morning, and the one downside of my new place is that it takes upwards of 30 minutes to get to work with traffic, since there's no good way to cut across between Sand Hill and Shoreline except to take all the old 'highways' like Page Mill, Junipero Serra, or Embarcadero, and none of them are particularly fast at rush hour. Oh well. Sleep well, everyone!
Work is busy, as usual, and so I'm looking forward to the weekend so that I can get down to business with organizing my room. I have half my bookshelves put together, but until they're all put together I can't put away all my books because I can't organize appropriately--but I can't put together my bookshelves until I move all my books, since I have ten boxes of stuff in the precise location where the bookshelves belong. Sadness. My apartment is fantastic, though, and we have wireless again so I'm quite the happy camper.
So, I'm stressed about work, I haven't had a chance to write my romance novel for months, my room is a disaster, and I have yet to buy a couch or other furniture for the living room, but all in all life is fantastic. Yay for that. And now, yay for bed--I had a conference call at eight this morning, and the one downside of my new place is that it takes upwards of 30 minutes to get to work with traffic, since there's no good way to cut across between Sand Hill and Shoreline except to take all the old 'highways' like Page Mill, Junipero Serra, or Embarcadero, and none of them are particularly fast at rush hour. Oh well. Sleep well, everyone!
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
i'm taking the cure so i can be quiet whenever i want
It's eleven pm, and the fact that I'm posting means that I'm at my office, since I don't have internet at my new apartment yet. I got to work at 8:30 today, stayed until 6:45, had a quick dinner, saw 'Sideways' with a coworker, came back to the office at 9:45, and worked for the past hour to do some stuff for tomorrow. Freaking work. I also had this huge decision laid on me today that will affect my entire career here, I feel, and I was told that I had to come to a decision by 11am tomorrow. Snap! That's twelve hours from now. Think, Sara, think!!
In other news, the new apartment is great (although still sans internet), my new bedding arrived and it is lovely, and overall life is good. I'll talk to all my friends again soon, I promise! But now, I should go home and go to bed.
In other news, the new apartment is great (although still sans internet), my new bedding arrived and it is lovely, and overall life is good. I'll talk to all my friends again soon, I promise! But now, I should go home and go to bed.
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